Article

Going through the motions

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.

Article
Full-text available
Background – External/intrusive violence at work can result in psychological distress and can be an important risk to employee health and safety. However, the vast majority of workplace violence studies have employed cross-sectional and correlational research, designed to examine immediate reactions after being assaulted at work. Aims – To explore whether exposure to robbery as a traumatic event may contribute to the onset of typical symptoms of psychological distress (anxiety depression, dysphoria and loss of confidence) and job dissatisfaction over time. Methods – We collected data by using a two-wave panel design, in which employees working the days of bank robberies, in an Italian bank, filled in a questionnaire between 48 hours to 1 week after the robbery (T1) and two months after the robbery (T2). We performed structural equation models (SEM) to evaluate the fit of different models to our data. Results: There were 513 participants at T1 (58% women) and 175 (34%) participants at T2 (62% women). There was a simultaneous association in which psychological distress lead to job dissatisfaction both following robbery (T1, n = 513), and two months later (T2, n = 175). Conclusion – Our findings supported a synchronous effects model and suggest that interventions after suffering physical assaults, apart from helping employees to recover their health, should consider restoring their trust and confidence in the organization. This study contributes to understanding the dynamic relationships between a robbery at work and its outcomes over time, by addressing several methodological and design deficiencies in previous longitudinal studies.
Article
Full-text available
The current study aims at measuring mental health in a sample of Italian workers as to evaluate the usability of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), both at individual and organizational levels. Indeed, working in unhealthy organizations appears to be particularly risky for workers. A database was built from data collected through a survey of workers in Italian industrial and public firms. The final sample comprised 2,707 employees from 55 Italian organizations. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted in which different competing models were tested. In addition, we measured the degrees of mental health both at individual and organizational levels by using a two-step cluster analysis. The findings of this study indicate that the GHQ has potential not only for measuring mental health at individual level but also at organizational level. In addition, demographic data was associated with mental health and appeared useful for epidemiological purposes. Finally, the use of a two-step cluster analysis illustrates the conceptualization of different degrees of mental health problems. These findings have some important theoretical implications for mental health promotion and also offer several opportunities for more in-depth research. Furthermore, these findings have the potential to help organizations prevent mental health problems at individual and organizational levels concurrently.
Article
Full-text available
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms have consistently been associated with poorer health in highly traumatized samples. However, less is known about the relationship between PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, and health in nonclinical groups. Because exercise contributes to health, we hypothesized that PTSD symptoms and depressive symptoms would be related to poorer health status, in part, through their association with lower exercise. We examined this in a sample of 200 undergraduates. Health status variables included functional health and negative health symptoms. Results indicated that greater PTSD symptoms and depressive symptoms were associated with poorer health status, and exercise mediated these relationships, in most cases. This study has implications for future research examining the effects of PTSD and depressive symptoms on health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Full-text available
UK Armed Forces (AF) personnel deployed to Afghanistan are frequently exposed to intense combat and yet little is known about the short-term mental health consequences of this exposure and the potential mitigating effects of military factors such as cohesion, morale, and leadership. To assess the possible modulating influence of cohesion, morale, and leadership on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and common mental disorders resulting from combat exposure among UK AF personnel deployed to Afghanistan, UK AF personnel, during their deployment to Afghanistan in 2010, completed a self-report survey about aspects of their current deployment, including perceived levels of cohesion, morale, leadership, combat exposure, and their mental health status. Outcomes were symptoms of common mental disorder and symptoms of PTSD. Combat exposure was associated with both PTSD symptoms and symptoms of common mental disorder. Of the 1,431 participants, 17.1% reported caseness levels of common mental disorder, and 2.7% were classified as probable PTSD cases. Greater self-reported levels of unit cohesion, morale, and perceived good leadership were all associated with lower levels of common mental disorder and PTSD. Greater levels of unit cohesion, morale, and good leadership may help to modulate the effects of combat exposure and the subsequent development of mental health problems among UK Armed Forces personnel deployed to Afghanistan.
Article
Full-text available
There is concern surrounding the psychological health and uptake of treatment services among veterans of the UK Armed Forces. Data from a cross-sectional, nationally representative sample were used to compare health outcomes and treatment seeking among 257 post-national service veterans aged 16-64 years and 504 age and sex frequency-matched non-veterans living in the community in England. Early leavers (<4 years service) were compared with longer serving veterans. Male veterans reported more childhood adversity and were more likely to have experienced a major trauma in adulthood than non-veterans. There was no association between any measure of mental health and veteran status in males, except reporting more violent behaviours [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.44, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-2.06]. In females, a significant association was found between veteran status and ever having suicidal thoughts (aOR 2.82, 95% CI 1.13-7.03). No differences in treatment-seeking behaviour were identified between veterans and non-veterans with any mental disorder. Early service leavers were more likely to be heavy drinkers (aOR 4.16, 95% CI 1.08-16.00), to have had suicidal thoughts (aOR 2.37, 95% CI 1.21-4.66) and to have self-harmed (aOR 12.36, 95% CI 1.61-94.68) than longer serving veterans. The findings of this study do not suggest that being a veteran is associated with adversity in terms of mental health, social disadvantage or reluctance to seek treatment compared with the general population. Some evidence implies that early service leavers may experience more mental health problems than longer-serving veterans.
Article
Full-text available
Demonstrating causal relationships has been of particular importance in organizational stress research. Longitudinal studies are typically suggested to overcome problems of reversed causation and third variables (e.g., social desirability and negative affectivity). This article reviews the empirical longitudinal literature and discusses designs and statistical methods used in these studies. Forty-three longitudinal field reports on organizational stress were identified. Most of the investigations used a 2-wave panel design and a hierarchical multiple regression approach. Six studies with 3 and more waves were found. About 50% of the studies analyzed potential strain-stressor (reversed causation) relationships. In about 33% of the studies there was some evidence of reverse causation. The power of longitudinal studies to rule out third variable explanations was not realized in many studies. Procedures of how to analyze longitudinal data are suggested.
Article
Full-text available
This study reports results of a meta-analysis linking traits from the 5-factor model of personality to overall job satisfaction. Using the model as an organizing framework, 334 correlations from 163 independent samples were classified according to the model. The estimated true score correlations with job satisfaction were -.29 for Neuroticism, .25 for Extraversion, .02 for Openness to Experience, .17 for Agreeableness, and .26 for Conscientiousness. Results further indicated that only the relations of Neuroticism and Extraversion with job satisfaction generalized across studies. As a set, the Big Five traits had a multiple correlation of .41 with job satisfaction, indicating support for the validity of the dispositional source of job satisfaction when traits are organized according to the 5-factor model.
Article
Full-text available
A vast number of published studies have suggested a link between job satisfaction levels and health. The sizes of the relationships reported vary widely. Narrative overviews of this relationship have been published, but no systematic meta-analysis review has been conducted. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 485 studies with a combined sample size of 267 995 individuals was conducted, evaluating the research evidence linking self-report measures of job satisfaction to measures of physical and mental wellbeing. The overall correlation combined across all health measures was r = 0.312 (0.370 after Schmidt-Hunter adjustment). Job satisfaction was most strongly associated with mental/psychological problems; strongest relationships were found for burnout (corrected r = 0.478), self-esteem(r = 0.429), depression (r = 0.428), and anxiety(r = 0.420). The correlation with subjective physical illness was more modest (r = 0.287). Correlations in excess of 0.3 are rare in this context. The relationships found suggest that job satisfaction level is an important factor influencing the health of workers. Organisations should include the development of stress management policies to identify and eradicate work practices that cause most job dissatisfaction as part of any exercise aimed at improving employee health. Occupational health clinicians should consider counselling employees diagnosed as having psychological problems to critically evaluate their work-and help them to explore ways of gaining greater satisfaction from this important aspect of their life.
Article
Interest in the problem of method biases has a long history in the behavioral sciences. Despite this, a comprehensive summary of the potential sources of method biases and how to control for them does not exist. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which method biases influence behavioral research results, identify potential sources of method biases, discuss the cognitive processes through which method biases influence responses to measures, evaluate the many different procedural and statistical techniques that can be used to control method biases, and provide recommendations for how to select appropriate procedural and statistical remedies for different types of research settings.
Article
Fear conditioning has been proposed as an important factor involved in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We examined fear processing in PTSD patients with mild symptoms and in individuals who did not develop symptoms (both groups consisting of victims of a bank robbery), through the study of fear conditioned response. Conditioned responses were quantified by the skin conductance response (SCR) and the facial thermal response, the latter being measured by high-resolution functional thermal infrared (fIR) imaging. We found: a) a change of the physiological parameters with respect to the baseline condition in both control subjects and PTSD patients during the conditioning phase; b) the permanence of the conditioning effect in the maintenance phase in both control and PTSD patients; c) patients and controls did differ for the variation across the phases of the physiological parameters rather than for their absolute values, showing that PTSD patients had a prolonged excitation and higher tonic component of autonomic activity. These results, although preliminary, indicate that the analysis of SCR and facial thermal response during the conditioning paradigm is a promising psychometric method of investigation, even in the case of low level PTSD symptom severity. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to discriminate between control subjects and PTSD patients with mild symptoms through infrared thermal imaging. It may suggest feasible approaches for diagnostic screening in the early phases of the disorder and in the assessment of preventive measures and therapies.
Article
This study examines the relationship between the experience of a traumatic event, that is, a bankrobbery, and its psychological consequences. Two groups of employees of a major commercial bank in the Netherlands participated in this study. One group (n = 310) consisted of subjects who had experienced a bankrobbery and worked in high-frequency bankrobbery areas; the other matched control group (n = 214) consisted of nonrobbed employees from banks in the same area. Victimized subjects displayed more signs of psychological distress than the control subjects, but distress decreased over time. The main findings of this study are that a depressive/avoidant coping style, strong threat perception during the robbery, and additional life events were positively related to posttraumatic distress as assessed by the Impact of Event Scale and the Symptom Check List (SCL-90), and self-esteem was negatively associated with the SCL-90 only.
aggression: a meta-analytic review of outcomes from different perpetrators
aggression: a meta-analytic review of outcomes from different perpetrators. J Organ Behav 2010;31:24-44.